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Rosine
Rosine (ロシーヌ Roshīnu) was a female apostle and a major antagonist in the Conviction Arc. Appearance In her preferred form, Rosine was a green-blue "elf" being of comparable height to her original, human self with insect-like eyes, two antennae and wings that grew from the sides of her head and enabled fast flight. When she introduced herself to Jill, she took a slightly different, more human appearance in which her face appeared like that of an insect and lacked antennae; this was most likely, however, merely a disguise, as she reverted to her base form when Guts ambushed and sliced off part of her wings. In her true apostle form, she took the form of a giant moth with several protrusions from below where her humanoid form appeared, along with several legs reminiscent of those of an insect, and two antennae, as well as a stinger for attacks in combination with blinding speed. Personality During her time as a human, she was rather tomboyish and adventurous, spending long hours exploring the woods and enjoying herself catching small animals. Her motivation for being an elf was the legend of a child named Peekaf who ran away from his village because he looked like an elf and did not know his real parents. She referred to herself as the Queen of the Elves and her true form is a monstrous female Luna Moth. Dwelling in the Misty Valley, she terrorized a nearby village, sending an army of elf demons to eat the town's livestock and people, as well as capturing children whom she transformed into more "elves" via cocoons. Despite the horror of these actions, they were done out of a childish desire and morality, which she adopted from the cruelty from living in her village. She grew up regularly being beaten by her father and probably often had to watch the cruelties of the war, which made her believe that this behavior is what a normal society is built upon. She did not truly understand what she was doing and believed she was showing kindness to the children. This is shown when she wanted to turn Jill into a pseudo-apostle so they could live together forever. She is shown to have a black and white morality in which she is right and adults are wrong. She does on the other hand seem to truly care for Jill and love her as a friend. Abilities Poison Dust: Rosine produced a toxic hallucinogen from the dust of her wings. Exposure was shown to disorient sensory perception and induce uncontrollable vomiting, as well as suffocation. However, the effects seemed to vary in severity as in some instances, only drowsiness is induced, suggesting that Rosine had some control over how much of the dust she shed in order to achieve the desired effect. Pseudo-Apostle Siring: She had polymorphic capabilities - running consonant to her fixation with the Peekaf fable - for transforming the children she captured into insect-like demonic minions whom she dubbed as elves. She achieved this by pupating them inside giant hives of sticky cocoons spanning the entire valley. She was also shown to be willing to transform co-operative adults into 'guardian' pseudo-apostles, whose duty was to protect her so-called elven paradise. Enhanced Speed: In her most advanced, and most aggressive apostle form, Rosine was able reach supersonic speeds in flight. This greatly enhanced her killing ability and kept her out of range, but her accuracy suffered. In breaking the sound barrier, she created sonic booms that were able to knock her targets off-balance even if she didn't land her hit. Enhanced Proboscis: Combined with her blistering speed, she demonstrated the ability to use her moth-like proboscis as a lance for skewering enemies, or as a makeshift rapier for slashing and evisceration. In her first encounter with Guts, she easily deflected his throwing knives with only the proboscis. Background Originally from a village, Rosine was born sometime after her mother, along with some of the other women in their village, were kidnapped and violated by enemy soldiers from a rival village. As a result, Rosine's father questioned if she was his biological daughter and this resulted in her parents fighting, with Rosine avoiding them altogether by spending her days outside in the forest catching bugs and lizards while collecting items she found lying around. She even befriended the young Jill, telling the girl her own version of the story of Peekaf and considered herself an elf despite knowing they did not exist. That night, keeping up the farce that she was an elf, Rosine decided to run away from home to the elvish kingdom said to be in the Misty Valley. Before leaving, Rosine told Jill that she could have everything she collected over the year except for one item that she took with her: a strange stone. After reaching the Misty valley, having set up search parties to find her, Rosine was found by her parents, with her mother glad to find her. Her father, however, struck her before attacking his wife, who intervened on the girl's behalf. Deeming such behavior unbecoming in her paradise, Rosine activated her beherit and sacrificed her own parents to be reborn as an elf-like apostle. From there, Rosine began to kidnap children and turn them into her "elves", while transforming lost men from the surrounding forest into guardians for her domain. Story Golden Age Arc The night before the Eclipse, Rosine was among the apostles who slaughtered the wounded members of the Band of the Falcon, Rickert seeing only a quick glimpse of her blurry image while gathering water, just before the killing began. Upon returning to the camp, Rickert found all of the wounded had been killed, and was cornered by Rosine and the Slug Count, only to be spared when the Skull Knight intervened and drove the apostles back. Rosine and the others then resumed their journey towards Midland's border. Conviction Arc Two years after her involvement in the Eclipse, Rosine resumes her attacks on her home village before she encountered Guts when he trapped a group of her familiars in the barn and set them on fire. After poisoning Guts, Rosine dismissed Puck as Peekaf and tried to kill him when he reveals her as a child before falling back when she sees Jill who referred to her by name. The following night, when Jill accompanied Guts to see her again, Rosine appear before her friend to bring her to her realm. As Guts fights through the insectoid guardians she placed around the Misty Valley, Rosine tempts Jill to consider becoming an "elf" like her. But when Jill realizes Rosine's warped view of humanity as she has the other kids kill each other in a war game, Rosine attempts to cocoon her friend against her will. However, Guts appears and sets the entire valley on fire, killing the last of Rosine's "elves" while using the cave to render her poison ineffective. Rosine responds to this by assuming her true form, attempting to kill Guts for ruining her paradise before starting anew with Jill by her side. After a long fight, Guts manages to land a fatal blow on Rosine by using her friendship with Jill to his advantage. Reverting to her usual form, with her left arm gone, Rosine starts to remember how she became an apostle and silently begs for her parents' forgiveness. As Jill runs to her out of concern for her, Rosine admits she never truly believed in elves. That's when Puck gives her peace of mind by formally introducing himself and explaining that his kind did indeed live in the Misty Valley long ago. After the Holy Iron Chain Knights drive off Guts as he was about to finish her off against Jill's pleas, a now delusional Rosine takes flight one last time to "return to her parents". Within minutes of leaving the Misty Valley, Rosine plummets downward towards a hill and dies remembering the good time she had with her mother and father. Some time after, the Skull Knight arrives to the charred remains of Rosine's tree and takes her Beherit. Notes * Without counting Charles, Rosine is perhaps the youngest apostle introduced in Berserk. * She also appears in the 1997 anime along with the other apostles from the first 3 volumes of the manga, and in a small cameo in the third Golden Age movie, flying in her apostle form right into the camera at the end of the Eclipse. * She and the Egg of the Perfect World are the only apostles that are not shown to have a human base form. * Because of the nature of apostles and their spawns reverting to human form upon death, Rosine indirectly played a role in demonizing Guts in the eyes of the Holy Iron Chain Knights. Category:Apostles Category:Supernatural Beings Category:Conviction Arc Characters Category:Deceased Characters